William Shakespeare wrote anonymously published play, expert claims

An expert on the works of William Shakespeare believes he has proved the Bard
wrote an unattributed play about Edward III after using a computer programme
designed to detect plagiarism.

Tmrw, & tmrw, & tmrw...Photo: SHAKESPEARE BIRTHPLACE TRUST

7:00AM BST 12 Oct 2009

Sir Brian Vickers, of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London, compared phrases used in The Reign of King Edward III, published anonymously in 1596, with early works by Shakespeare and is now convinced the work was a collaboration with Thomas Kyd, a popular playwright at the time.

Sir Brian said in plays by different authors ten to 20 matches might be expected, but he found about 200 matches when comparing Edward III with Shakespeare’s early works.

“The computer is picking out three-word sequences that could just be chunks of grammar. But when you get metaphors or unusual parts of speech, it is different,” he told The Times newspaper.

“When you have 200 [matches] you can be pretty sure. Everyone can see that certain scenes are very Shakespearean, but no one could see why there were verses that are definitely not his. There is a real difference in quality between the two authors.”

The matches were found in four scenes, representing about 40% of the play. The rest of the work had about 200 matches with other works by Kyd.

The idea that The Reign of King Edward III was written by Shakespeare was largely dismissed until the late 1990s, but it was included in The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works.

Stanley Wells, chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, said: “I am sceptical, frankly, that we have yet reached a stage where these computer-assisted investigations can prove authorship.

“It is difficult to judge the results without doing the research oneself. [But] it is part of the willingness to see Shakespeare not as an eminence, not as a person topping everyone else, but to see Shakespeare as a working dramatist collaborating with everyone else.